IFS Research: Group Therapy for PTSD and Substance Use

"Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) co-occurs with substance use disorder (SUD) at high rates of between 30 and 60 percent. Present-centered treatments for PTSD-SUD are generally group-based, teach coping skills, and emphasize substance use, while past-focused treatments are generally individual-based and focus on traumatic memories. On their own, neither has proved sufficient."

"While past-focused treatments reduce PTSD symptoms more effectively than present-centered or SUD treatment-as-usual models, they are not necessarily more effective for SUD. At the same time, widely recommended trauma-focused therapies for PTSD and SUD, like cognitive behavioral therapy integrated with prolonged exposure (COPE), report high dropout rates, low engagement, and widely varied outcomes."

"What we need for PTSD and SUD is treatment that incorporates both past- and present-focused techniques in addition to a few other elements: A brief duration, A whole-person approach, A telehealth platform delivery, A design aimed at engaging diverse populations in community mental health and SUD treatment environments."

PTSD and substance use disorder co-occur in 30-60% of cases, yet existing treatments prove insufficient. Present-centered approaches teach coping skills but neglect trauma processing, while past-focused treatments effectively reduce PTSD symptoms but show high dropout rates and variable outcomes for substance use. Effective treatment requires integrating both temporal approaches alongside brief duration, whole-person perspective, telehealth accessibility, and engagement of diverse community populations. The PARTS-SUD program, a 12-week intervention based on Internal Family Systems therapy, addresses these gaps by combining past- and present-focused techniques in a non-pathologizing, de-stigmatizing framework suitable for community mental health and substance use treatment settings.

Read at Psychology Today